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NORTH Wales rail passengers are to miss out on high speed connections to Europe.

Eurostar has struck deals with Virgin Trains and other railway firms to offer through tickets to Paris and other European destinations when it begins its cross-Channel services from London St Pancras next month.

The tickets are being sold from 68 UK towns and cities but none are in Wales.

A Virgin Trains spokesman admitted stations along the North Wales coast line to Holyhead do not feature in the list.

“The closest are Crewe and Runcorn and the fares to Paris, Brussels and Disneyland Resort Paris start at £82.

“Hopefully the scheme will be extended to other stations in time.”

Passengers wishing to travel to Paris from North Wales will have to buy a ticket to Crewe and then another ticket he said.

“They may not have to change trains or even seats as there are through trains to London Euston from North Wales,” the spokesman added.

Eurostar’s chief executive Richard Brown said: “Eurostar’s move to St Pancras International and the introduction of through fares will open up rail travel to the continent for millions of people living to the north of London.”

But passengers at Bangor station yesterday morning were unimpressed by the claims.

Shopper Kate White from Maesgeirchen, was travelling to Chester with her friend Jan Williams. The mum of three said: “Paris might be nice but the fares to Chester are expensive enough.”

Student Dale Hume, 19, added: “A reasonable service between Bangor and Colwyn Bay is what most people want around here.”

Businessman Simon McKee said he travels to Paris and Brussels frequently but was unlikely to use the train.

“I would like to be offered the flexibility of train journeys, especially to cities beyond Paris and Brussels which are not linked to the UK by air. But the air journey from North Wales to Europe is always going to be quicker and for business people time is money,” he said.

The fastest journey between Holyhead and Paris would be just over six hours plus transfer time between Euston and St Pancras stations and a 30-minute check-in time for the international train.

But airlines operating from regional airports said they did not fear the competition from the service.

An easyJet spokeswoman said it would be cheaper and faster for North Wales travellers to travel to Liverpool airport and fly with the airline to Paris.

“Eurostar caters for a central London elite, I don’t seriously think they will be able to compete with our flight times from elsewhere in the country,” she said.

A survey last week found the cheapest easyJet return fare to Paris from Liverpool was £46.11 for travel in early December.